New test could smell cancer coming

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New test could smell cancer coming

(CBS) – Dogs can sniff out a person with skin cancer — and so might an “electronic nose,” Monell Chemical Senses researchers say.

The skin gives off organic chemicals, many of which have a distinctive odor. Researchers sampled the air above patients’ skin tumor sites and compared it to the air above similar skin sites from healthy people.

The chemicals were the same, but tumors gave off different amounts than normal skin.